- Rubia Daniels flew to the town of Mussommeli in Sicily after hearing rumors of cheap housing.
- She ended up buying three crumbling homes for $3.30 in 2019 and is currently restoring them.
- Many towns in Italy have introduced similar schemes in an attempt to bring the population back to the Italian countryside.
When Rubia Daniels first heard about cheap housing in Italy, she knew she had to see for herself.
“I was very surprised. It was one of those things that you have to see to see if it’s true,” San Francisco-based Daniels told Insider. “I did some research and within 3 days I got my air ticket, rental car and hotel and left.”
By the end of a 10-day trip to the small Sicilian town of Mussommeli in July 2019, she was the proud owner of three dilapidated homes she bought for just €1 ($1.10) each. had become
representatives from 1 euro per caseThe organization responsible for Mussomeli’s housing projects has approved the sale.
Rubia Daniels in front of Mussomeli’s property
Rubia Daniels.
Daniels, who moved to California from the Brazilian suburb of Brasilia 30 years ago, said the Italian town reminded her of her childhood home.
“People were so welcoming, everyone wanted to have coffee with me. The realtors hugged me like a sister. He was with me,” Daniels said.
Not only was she fascinated by the rich history of the town and its inhabitants, but she also liked the idea of restoring an abandoned house.
A collage of the roof of her house before and after restoration.
Rubia Daniels.
“It’s an environmental concept,” added Daniels, who works in the solar industry. “We need to stop building and start retrofitting what we have.”
Daniels said she has different plans for each new home.
“The house I’m working on is going to be turned into an art gallery. One is for me to stay in. And the third house will be my biggest project so I want to turn it into a wellness house. “We set up the center to give back to the community,” she added.
The building with the green door is Daniels’ third property.
Rubia Daniels
The 49-year-old resumed property restoration at the end of 2019, but had to put the project on hold due to the pandemic.
“We just started the renovation work again last year because the COVID-19 outbreak made it impossible for us to go back,” Daniels said. She now splits her time between San Francisco and Mussommeli, each time spending at least a month in an Italian village.
So far, the exteriors of two homes have been completed, but the final one has yet to be started, she said.
Italy desperately needs someone like Daniels
Daniels isn’t alone in jumping on Italy’s desperate desire to repopulate its quiet, deserted towns.
In 2021, Nine villages in southern Italy offered to pay millennials $33,000 to relocate As long as it helps repopulate the rapidly depopulating town. These villages, all in Calabria, southern Italy, offered people under the age of 40 cash payments for migration. Candidate towns include the cliffside village of Civita and the coastal beach town of Aieta.
What these places had in common was that they had less than 2,000 inhabitants and were just a few years away from becoming ghost towns.
Calabria was also in the news in the summer of 2020. Offer a house in Cinque Frondi Village for $1.14. Twelve homes were put up for sale at that price in an effort to repopulate the town in a “beauty operation”.
And in 2019, Insider Will Martin Reported on the commarata. Cammarata is a town in central Sicily that offers free housing to anyone who wants to live there. Mayor Vincenzo Giambrone said this is part of an effort to keep the town from becoming “abandoned”.
But inheriting a $1 home is no mean feat. According to Insider’s Tom Murray, the problem is dealing with homes that are in complete disrepair and may need major renovations to make them habitable.
